Well, this is only the second leap year post we’ve ever had, and I thought it would be funny to make it be the same one – so let’s take a look back at what we were talking about 4 years ago…  Tom Rosen was in the middle of a recap of our favorite older games, and this was the middle section –  Enjoy!  (And prepare to read the same thing on 2/29/2020)

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OLDER (1990 – 1999)

Opinionated Gamers Collective Top 5:

(1) Euphrat & Tigris

(2) El Grande tied with Tichu

(4) Settlers of Catan

(5) Showmanager

With this group, we finally get to some games that are actually a bit old, at least more so than those discussed on Monday from the more recent decade.  We’ve begun to dig a bit deeper into the strata of gaming history and are beginning to see the roots of modern board games, but we still have a little ways to go to see the true ancestors on Friday.

There are no real surprises here, with Knizia, Kramer, and Klaus Teuber dominating the list.  The old guard were certainly kings of the 90s, even if they were dethroned by the likes of Seyfarth, Lehmann, Chvatil, Friese, and Moon after the turn of the century.  In addition to the obvious results of Euphrat & Tigris, El Grande, and Settlers, we find everybody’s seemingly favorite card game – Tichu (although there are those of us who find that it pales in comparison to Schmiel’s Was Sticht and Dorra’s Njet).  And then there’s the little engine that could, Dirk Henn’s Showmanager (or Show Manager depending on who you ask) just squeaking into fifth place to join the giants of the decade.  No matter how you look at it, these are definitely five games that would be a great place to start building a game collection.  And they’re great proof that older games still deserve to and actually do hit the table despite the flood of new releases each year.  These classics continue to shine and continue to influence the development of the hobby many years later.

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